Liberating Doubt

Philosophical counseling is a consultation service offered by academically-trained philosophers to individuals who want help thinking more clearly about personal problems or concerns.   

Clients who come to me have problems or concerns that are too difficult for them to handle alone. Their everyday resources for advice and counsel appear insufficient. They observe that their issues are not medical in nature, and cannot be successfully addressed through mental health counseling or psychotherapy.

Issues tend to center on questions of reality, value, meaning and purpose, but they are sometimes more narrowly circumscribed personal and professional problems.  

Some examples of clients and their issues I have helped include: 

• A Holocaust survivor sought new ways of asserting herself in her controlling family life.

• A young entrepreneur wanted to develop clear criteria for engaging (or disengaging) with friends who seemed to be stuck in their lives even as he moved forward.

• A retired teacher with a disabled spouse wanted to find her purpose and energy beyond her care-taking obligations

• An executive coach sought to rethink her approach to coaching as she aged.

• An attorney was conflicted about whether she should fire her incompetent secretary who was also economically disadvantaged.

• An animal rights activist hoped to find a less “in your face” way of advocating for the issues he cared about.

• A recently-divorced high school teacher sought clarity about his post-marriage identity and life goals.

As a philosophical counselor, I engage clients as equals in an open-ended conversation where we can, together, understand their issue and explore alternative solutions. Individuals are empowered to arrive at their own answers to the questions they have, and to critically probe their underlying beliefs and assumptions. 

My approach to philosophical counseling is influenced by my professional training, by my 30 + years teaching at the college level - critical thinking, ethics, moral psychology and phenomenology- and by my work as a facilitator. The philosophies and philosophers who have most shaped my thinking are Aristotle, the Stoicism of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, Nargarjuna and Madhyamika Buddhism, Wittgenstein, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. I wrote my doctoral dissertation in 1995 on the way cognitive representations function in skilled perception and action.  

I was certified in Philosophical Counseling by the American Association Philosophical Practitioner Association in 2002. 

I offer consultations in-person, but also through video, via Skype or Face-time, and by phone. My fee is $ 90.00 per session. Packages of 4 sessions are available for 300.00.